britishcomicsfandomcom-20200215-history
The Cursed Earth
Write the text of your article here! the CURSED EARTH extended saga within the Judge Dredd chronicles marked the first 'proper' Dredd epic, taking up a full six months of 1978. An earlier pseudo-epic entitled the Robot Wars had been published within a few short months of the early 1977 futuristic-lawman stories, however for all it's cinematic scope, this earlier tale is sometimes dismissed by Dredd historians, and it certainly lacked the sheer build-up and sense of grandeur associated with the 1978 tale. Essentially a sweeping epic extending over a backdrop that is the radioactive hell-on-Earth surrounding the civilization represented by Mega-City One, World War Three has reduced much of post-WW3 America to an irradiated no-man's land, populated by muties, slay-riders, marauding renegade robots, and much, much more. The crux of the story centres around the plight of Mega-City Two which has succumbed to a deadly virus 2-T Fru-T which has reduced most of the population to the level of demonic vampires. Dredd's mission is to ensure the secure delivery of a valuable anti-dote to the virus, but first he has to overcome endless insurmountable odds, which take in corrupt future sociities Vegas has been completely over-run by Mafia Hoodlums demented droids seek out fresh blood from victims in order to prolong the life of the Last President of the United Statesand even, in an extended saga of graphic brutality, exceeedingly vicious Tyrannosaurus Rex and other dinosaurs brought back into being from Prehistoric times. Background: In the mid-21st Century, an utterly devastating series of Atomic Wars has obliterated--and radically altered----much of Planet Earth's surface, and the Cursed Earth encapsulates the core area of the United States, the only habitable areas being the densely over-populated Mega-Cities. Such was the devastation and damage inflicted upon these vast radioactive areas that they were dubbed as the worst disasters ever to afflict the planet since the dinosaurs were wiped out by a comet millions of years ago. The fall-out of the Wars was so severe, that natural biological life was set back for a period of at least thousands, if not millions of years, before the Earth even had a hope of recouperating----and sustaining---life-forms of any natural sort. However, in the wake of the man-made atrocities, the Cursed Earth regions witnessed the survival of many mutated life-forms, from dangerous radioactive-scarred abominations, to strange beings of un-natural semi-powers. In this lawless region as too tough to master and not worth governing by the Mega-Judges true societies were unable to flourish, however relatively small groups of renegades formed isolated pockets who were usually hostile to the few 'norms' brave or foolish enough to enter these territories. In exceptional cases, such as Father Earth, groups of substantial numbers could congregate to present a real challenge to Mega-City One if an outside assault was launched. The Cursed Earth, of course, was sometimes the choice of many ex-Judges who chose to take the 'Long Walk' amongst these wastelands at the end of their careers: illustrious judges to choose this option included Chief Judge Mc Gruder as well as Joe Dredd himself.